1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to text input technology. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method that allows a user to use a joystick to input Chinese characters to a data processing device by entering only the first few strokes required to write each character, such that the user can perform Chinese input tasks in a fast, predictive way.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Chinese is written with characters known as hanzi (*). Each character represents a syllable of spoken Chinese and also has a meaning. The characters were originally pictures of people, animals, or other things, but after several thousands years evolution they have become increasingly stylized and no longer resemble the things they represent. Many of the characters are actually compounds of two or more characters. To read Modern Chinese, one should know 2000–3000 characters. To read classical Chinese, knowledge of 5000–6000 characters is required. The largest Chinese dictionaries include 56,000 characters, but most of them are archaic, obscure or in rare variant forms.
A Chinese character (zi, ) can be used as an independent single-character word. It can also be used in combination with other character or characters to constitute a word (ci, ) or phrase (cizu, ). In daily life, two-character words are most frequently used. For example, the character “” means horse and one can make many different words by appending another character to this character:    (horse)+(force, power)=(horse power);    (horse)+(house)=(stable, “horse house”);    (horse)+(up, on)=(immediately, “on horse back”);    (horse)+(man, worker, husband)=(groom,+“horse man”);    (horse)+(road, street)=(road, street, “horse path”);
A Chinese character is written using strokes following a specific sequence. There are many different ways to classify Chinese strokes. Traditionally, strokes are classified into eight basic forms as illustrated in FIG. 1. These eight basic strokes can be further grouped into five or six categories depending on different classification criteria.
A Chinese character may consist of between 1 and 64 stokes. The strokes for a character are always written in a specific sequence and each stroke is written in a determined direction. In dictionaries, characters are ordered partly by the number of stokes they contain. FIG. 2 shows various sample characters with different number of strokes and a sample four-stroke character with stroke ordinal number and stroke direction indicated.
In handwriting, it is essential to write a character in the correct sequence. This is not an issue for most of native Chinese speakers because the correct sequence is taught in the first grade and repeated in daily life. There are several basic rules for the sequence, for example: writing top before bottom, writing left before right, left vertical stroke before top horizontal stroke, bottom horizontal stroke last, center stroke before wings, horizontal strokes before intersecting vertical strokes, left-falling strokes before right-falling strokes, minor strokes (often) last, etc.
With the broad use of computers, many Chinese input systems and methods have been developed. The systems and methods are primarily classified into two categories: keyboard-coding and handwritten stroke recognition. In a keyboard-coding approach, such as in Three Corners, Goo, 5-stroke (Wubi), or Changjie, the user enters the strokes of a character by pressing on the corresponding key or keys and chooses a desired character from a set of candidate characters generated and presented on a display as matching alternatives. This approach can also be found in Motorola's CD928C cellular telephone.
In a handwritten stroke recognition approach, such as in Apple-SS, Tegic's T9, or Synaptics' QuickStroke, the user writes a stroke using a special device such as electronic pen or a stylus and the computer compares the user's stroke with a large number of collections in the database to recognize it. Some of those input systems, such as Zi Corporation's text input solution, have incorporated an intelligent indexing means to intuitively predict and display desired candidates. Some of those systems also include personalization and learning capabilities providing prediction of user-created terms and frequently used vocabulary.
The purpose of this invention is to provide an alternative Chinese input system and method which uses neither keyboard/telephone keys nor handwriting recognition devices, but uses a joystick or its functional equivalent as a primary input means.